there was once a thread, i went looking before I started this one but couldn't find it. ok, i didn't try too hard. if someone wants to merge this, feel free.

I started Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. My book club at work picked it.
i usually devour books, but this one is very hard to read. i have to put it down and walk away a lot. Then once i get through the chapter, go back and read it again for fluidity. Anyway, it's making me want to go hug every military person that i see. A very humbling book.

Last month was A Tale of Two Cities

When the only tool you got is a hammer, every problem looks like a hippie.

Mmmmmm I love the smell of Burning Man - Token

Getting overly dramatic about the ticket sale process is so 2012. - Maladroit

Lately I've been on a Klosterman kick, don't know why other than he writes well and generally there's a good dozen or so really interesting points in each book that make me think about things I wouldn't ordinarily consider. I just finished "Eating The Dinosaur" and "Killing Yourself To Live: 85% of a True Story", currently I'm in the middle of "Fargo Rock City" and I have "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas" on deck.

how are you liking The Girl? We read it for book club too, and i was very excited as it was the first non-classic the group had picked. I didn't enjoy it. I really wanted too, but it didn't live up to the hype for me. The topic is hard for me to read about, but i didn't really like his writing technique.

When the only tool you got is a hammer, every problem looks like a hippie.

Mmmmmm I love the smell of Burning Man - Token

Getting overly dramatic about the ticket sale process is so 2012. - Maladroit

tamarakay,
So far I am liking the book. I am almost half way through and I have a feeling something really bad is going to happen. It's making me nervous. When I was younger I could read all kinds of stuff (scary, creepy, etc), nowadays I don't know it seems to affect me more. I read the first book "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" and really liked it. The only problem I had at first with the books is that the setting is Sweden and being ignorant of towns and cities of Sweden I googled a map so I have a better grasp of it...

After searching fruitlessly through the shelves and piles and boxes of books here looking for my old copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy etc I gave up and got another one from Amazon. About half-way through the fourth book now and convinced, once again, that Douglas Adams is spying on me from beyond the grave. Or something. It's very disconcerting.

Also in progress: Robert Graves, Steven Brust, JRR Tolkien, all repeats. I generally get through 300 pages a day but only find one or two good new (to me) writers per year. I used to swap huge bags of books back and forth with a friend but now she has a Kindle.

Life is too short to read bad books, Tamara! And Lucky, there is enough terrible suffering in real life to satisfy me, so, I steer clear of books where lots of really bad things happen...

"Burning Man ruined my life as I knew it, and I have never been happier." -mgb327

I agree about the bad books thing. Unbreakable is the true life story of an amazing man, and i want to honor his story and keep it alive.

we did a project at our church when the kids were jr. highers. They had to record stories from the church elders, then do an "introduction" to the sunday school class. From that project we learned that Mr. Zimmerman was a spy in germany during wwII. He was one of the first people to send back info about concentration camps and what was happening there. He spent almost the entire war in germany sending info back to the allied forces. Before that to the kids he was just this quiet old man who sat in the back. After that project the kids treated ALL of the elders with much more respect. I've been reading bios and history since.

When the only tool you got is a hammer, every problem looks like a hippie.

Mmmmmm I love the smell of Burning Man - Token

Getting overly dramatic about the ticket sale process is so 2012. - Maladroit

It's hard to admit that I might be reading something I really don't like. Sometimes I get stuck in a book, and basically my reading slows way down. I know when I have one I like, It hardly lasts a weekend. Guns germs and steel stopped my reading for a while, yet I know it's a good book... So I just popped into a revisiting of the Berrybender trilogy by Larry McMurtrey and am enjoying the hell out of it, as I do anything McMurtrey.

Sometimes it can be tough putting a bad book down. A case in point is my friend Pat. He's a writer and I've generally enjoyed his many books but his latest book South of Broad is a dog. Painful in every way. I haven't the heart to say as much though I suspect he knows given the relatively dismal numbers. At some point you just have to retire bad books to the bookshelf or give them away.

Elorrum wrote:Guns germs and steel stopped my reading for a while, yet I know it's a good book...

It is a good book. A very good book. I was knocked over by it back in the nineties.
But...
...there are so many good books out there, you don't have to worry about skipping one.
I don't finish books all the time. Today, I'm not finishing a book on Peter the Great.

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

Elorrum wrote:Guns germs and steel stopped my reading for a while, yet I know it's a good book...

It is a good book. A very good book. I was knocked over by it back in the nineties.But......there are so many good books out there, you don't have to worry about skipping one.I don't finish books all the time. Today, I'm not finishing a book on Peter the Great.

Yeah, bogged me down too. However, Honey, Mud and Maggots was fun.

I am currently not reading an entire mountain of books. Sine the Tamoxifen and the deaths in the family, when y reading fell off, I haven't been able to jump start my mind back into my old habits. I read magazines, good ones, but I can't track a book anymore. I still do alright on anthologies.